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In 1994, Channel Six Petersburg (owned by then-current CTC Media StoryFirst Communications) began expanded outside St. Petersburg. Some local stations began rebroadcast that station: Telesphere (Krasnoyarsk), AMTV (Moscow), Zenit (Oryol), TSM Channel 10 (Novobirisk, have been rebroadcast since the launch in 1991 but disaffiliated in 1995),....

In December 1996, AMTV went into finacal crisis, most of founders had left. It later joins StoryFirst Communications (at that time owned some regional TV in Russia). AMTV later joins those stations, leading to created STS.

STS was launched on 1 December 1996.

In 2002, Alexander Rodnyansky became General Director of the STS. During the period of his leadership the ratings of the channel showed a quick and significant increase. 2006 - the best year in the history of STS. Then the average share of the channel's audience reached the highest level - 10.4% (audience "Russia, all viewers over four years").[3]

In 2007 STS switched to round-the-clock broadcasting.

In 2008 Vyacheslav Murugov became the General Director of STS (he also holds this position today). Murugov created many successful original Russian TV projects.

December 21, 2009 - start broadcasting international version of the channel - "STS International".[4]

December 14, 2012 - STS entered the second multiplex of digital television of Russia.

Today STS is a leading entertainment network in Russia. Focusing on entertainment, STS broadcasts a mix between Russian productions and international programming of interest to its target audience, viewers aged 10–45,[5] especially younger audiences.

Approximately 100 million people are within STS’s signal reach. In 2017, STS achieved an average audience share in its target demographic of 9.2%.[6] STS network reaches approximately 96% of urban households.[7] It ranks as the seventh most watched nationwide broadcaster in Russia overall. At the same time, the share of STS is almost equal to the share of the audience of its main competitor — TNT channel, which occupies the sixth place.[8]

The STS Network currently has about 350 affiliates, including 19 owned-and-operated stations.

STS Media works with the leading Russian TV content production companies. In autumn 2003, the channel launched a line of domestic television series. Since then, many successful TV series came out on the channel.

Series by Hollywood producers were an important part of STS’s brand. Those shows enjoyed outstanding audience appreciation. While Russian audiences in general prefer Russian-made series, through creative marketing STS has achieved higher ratings for Hollywood-made series than other free-to-air broadcasters.[citation needed]